One Shot at Forever

March 12, 2012
A writer for Sports Illustrated, Ballard (The Art of the Beautiful Game) has expanded an article he wrote for the magazine about the 1971 Macon (Ill.) High School’s baseball team’s improbable run to the state finals. Coached by an eccentric outsider, a team of poor farm boys from a small, rural town take on the bigger and richer teams; this story has obvious parallels to the classic basketball film Hoosiers and in Ballard’s capable hands evokes similar themes of inspiration, camaraderie and the pressure of the once-in-a-lifetime moments associated with prep athletics. By exploring the roots of the laid-back managing style of the team’s coach, Lynn Sweet, a “hippie” English teacher who allows his players to warm up to the soundtrack of Jesus Christ Superstar and wear peace signs on their hats, Ballard effortlessly captures the conflict between Eisenhower era beliefs and the changing cultural landscape in Vietnam-era America. But this is first and foremost a sports book, and the core is the dramatic state tournament games that are played out in such detail that it is as if you are sitting in the bleachers with nearly all of the 1,200 residents of Macon. Ballard holds the story of the team together with his conversational prose and boosts the story’s poignancy with a touching conclusion that demonstrates the importance of high school sports and hometown heroes while asking, if not answering, the question of how much “one game,” win or lose, can change a life. B&w photos. Agent: John Ware.

May 1, 2012
It's a familiar story: the magic season, the underdog overcoming all odds. The 1971 Macon, Illinois, high-school baseball team and its misfit coach went all the way to the state finals, knocking off powerhouse teams with enrollments larger than their entire central Illinois town. Coach L. C. Sweet, a hard-drinking, free-spirited English teacher, had been a pretty good amateur ballplayer. His resemblance to Frank Zappa and his unconventional waysholding practice only if the kids felt like it, letting them sew peace symbols on their caps, tolerating them belting out Yellow Submarine' at the top of their lungs as they arrived for away gamesdidn't sit well with the community. But the boys won. And when they beat formidable Lane Tech from Chicago to reach the state finals, even the naysayers couldn't argue with Sweet being named Coach of the Year. Ballard writes very well and avoids the usual pitfalls of the inspirational story, the cloying platitudes and rah-rah nonsense. These kids were simply good ballplayers coached by a guy with an open mind, a lot of common sense, and a zest for fun.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)